Hmmm. I'd like to know what the localizers think. Your localization manager's view isn't shared by most of the localizers and tech writing firms I know.
I worked for Oracle, which translates much of its documentation from FrameMaker. They moved to structured FrameMaker, using a variation of the DocBook DTD as the basis of their EDD. They added some features that helped localizers detect changed elements. I'm sure that Mercury could do this as well. You should be able to come up with tools that help you manage translations even if you stick with unstructured FM. You may get many responses, but speaking as a former software engineer AND internationalization engineer AND international product manager AND technical writer, I'd have to say that the key to any process is senior management backing. Your senior management has to make the decision that simultaneous delivery is higher priority than any other issue. Then your senior management needs to get all the stakeholders in a room to decide on the compromises that will make that happen. In the short term, you should go back to your L10N manager and ask him to ask his localizers what they prefer for a document format. Your localizers are going to be familiar with a variety of situations, and since they are the ones who have to do the root work, they need to be involved. All major software companies in the US are delivering their major language sets simultaneously with English. Joe TuVox, Inc. 19050 Pruneridge Avenue Suite 150, Cupertino, CA 95014-0715 Joe Malin Technical Writer (408)625.1623 jmalin at tuvox.com www.tuvox.com <http://www.tuvox.com/> The views expressed in this document are those of the sender, and do not necessarily reflect those of TuVox, Inc. ________________________________ From: framers-bounces+jmalin=tuvox.com at lists.frameusers.com [mailto:framers-bounces+jmalin=tuvox.com at lists.frameusers.com] On Behalf Of Sivia Atar Sent: Thursday, November 24, 2005 12:46 AM To: 'framers at lists.frameusers.com' Subject: Document Localization Process? Hi, At Mercury we write our source product documentation in FrameMaker and we produce approximately 35,000 pages of documentation each year. Most of our documentation is translated into Japanese, Korean, and Chinese and we're now also starting to translate into some European languages. Mercury wants to reach the point where it can ship localized versions of its products at the same time as the English Versions. Our Localization Manager says that his team cannot efficiently track changes to our FrameMaker files. This results in delays and makes it difficult to keep translation costs at a reasonable level. I would like to hear how other companies manage the process of localizing documentation (workflow, communication, and tools). Thanks in advance for any information you can provide. ____________________________ Sivia Atar, Documentation Infrastructure Leader, satar at mercury.com <mailto:satar at mercury.com> direct 972.3.539.9288 fax 972.3.553.1617 19 Shabazi Street, Yehud, Israel 56100 MERCURY Business Technology Optimization www.mercury.com <http://www.mercury.com> <http://www.mercury.com/signature-promotions/> ______________________________________________________________________ This email has been scanned by the MessageLabs Email Security System. For more information please visit http://www.messagelabs.com/email ______________________________________________________________________ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.frameusers.com/pipermail/framers/attachments/20051125/e164bbd4/attachment.html -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/gif Size: 8309 bytes Desc: image001.gif Url : http://lists.frameusers.com/pipermail/framers/attachments/20051125/e164bbd4/attachment.gif